4 Video Game Choices That Will Leave You Heartbroken
There comes a time in every geek’s life where they might feel like they are stuck between making the very difficult decision of becoming a wizard or a Jedi, and as for gamers, we often experience these difficult decision making choices more than we would like to.
The list below probably contains one of those times where you had to pause the game (if possible) or take a few deep breaths as you feel time slowing around you (not to be dramatic) as you know that you are about to willingly make one of the hardest choices in every the game you’re playing.
There are so many incredible choices based driven games out there that I had a really difficult time picking some to add into this list! So with a little help from my friends here are what I feel are five of the most difficult choices you can make in video games. If you haven’t played any of the following games now might be the time to stop reading because this article does contain spoilers.
Mass Effect 2 – Not Romancing Garrus
Now THANKFULLY I’ve NEVER EVER not romanced Garrus in any of my Mass Effect playthroughs, but to imagine other gamers going through with such a hard and difficult decision on their own is just heartbreaking.
Save yourself the time and dump the other character you are currently focused on and just date Garrus.
Garrus has so much to offer, he has always been a bit rough around the edges and liked to do things that are a bit more risky and dangerous but he always stands by Shepard. Throughout the trilogy, he becomes your best friend, and really that’s all anyone could ever ask for since the entire galaxy is placed upon Shepard’s shoulders from the very start.
I must admit that he can be a very stubborn character to romance since all he wants to do is Calibrate the Normandy guns, but once you break past all that he is a sweet, kind, and overprotective boyfriend. What more can a girl ask for?
Telltale Games The Walking Dead – Choosing Lee’s Death
Telltale’s The Walking Dead games are some of the best pieces of storytelling in video games I’ve ever had to experience. In the first ‘season’ of the games the writers take you on the everyday struggles of what would happen if a zombie apocalypse ever broke out. We start off our journey as Lee, an ex-con who was about to go to jail for a crime he committed. I’m not so sure if I should call it luck but the police driver hit a “walker” on the highway and the car was sent flying over a cliff.
Without giving too much away, Lee goes on a really insane adventure with fellow survivors who are on the run trying to fight for their lives. One of those survivors is an 8-year old girl named Clementine. Lee, never having kids of his own, quickly takes the little girl under his wing as she is looking for her parents who left her with a babysitter while on holiday.
As each chapter continues and we see the struggles the survivors go through and we cannot help but fall in love with them. But like every great movie or story we need to have our hearts yanked out at some point and although the game was filled with shocks, gasps, and laughter we were left with very little opportunity to prepare ourselves for what was to follow.
Clementine decides to run away with a mystery walkie-talkie voice who promised her that he will help get her to her parents. Leaving a distressed Lee behind looking for her which leads to him being attacked and bitten by a zombie.
Knowing his time is running short Lee does everything he can to track down the person who took Clem and to bring her back to safety, and depending on how you played through the events of the game it can be with or without the help of Lee’s friends.
We witness Lee’s final moments as he is helping Clem escape and get her to safety. During this scene, he asks little Clem to kill him as he doesn’t want to turn into one of the zombies. In the real world, you as the player have 2 options (all while in tears and heartbroken). You must either choose option 1 and shoot Lee so he does not turn, or take option 2 and leave him behind and probably never see him again.
For me, no matter what game I play, I try and make choices I feel I would somehow make in real life and I knew for a fact that I would never be able to pull the trigger if I was Clem. So with my tail between my legs, I ran and left Lee chained to a chair leaving him to suffer and turn.
To this day still, I feel incredibly bad about it… however, if I do play the game again I’m worried if I’ll ever be able to just pull the trigger.
Life is Strange – Save Your Friends Life Or Save The Town
Life Is Strange is a story filled with choices that will leave you questioning even the smallest of choices… like bacon or waffles? However, on a serious note as you approach the ending of the game you have to make THE most difficult decision throughout the entire game.
You could let one person who is, in fact, your best friend die to save many, many more lives, or you could let them all die to save your best friend (here’s hoping my best friend never reads this because they might not like the answer).
The choice might seem simple to people like me who haven’t played the game but to so many gamers who have spent hours with Max and Chloe, I’m sure the decision was a horrible one to make. You’ve spent countless times throughout the game-saving Chloe over and over again, and what do the writers do? They try to force you to let her go.
These are not the kind of choices that come easily and like I’ve said before I would try and make the choices I would have made in real life. And while in the real world I might be looking for a third option, like giving up my own life, to save the ones I love and the lives of others, Life Is Strange never gives those extra options and you are forced to live with those decisions.
Mass Effect 3 – Synthesize, Destroy or Control
It’s been a while since I last played Mass Effect the trilogy completely through, as I’ve kinda created my own ending to the series to one of the best video games I’ve EVER played. For those of you who don’t know, Mass Effect is a big part of who I am and the story and characters have helped me through some really challenging moments.
And having the game end the way it did, with the limited choices we had, left me with picking the option of leaving the ending open so that if needed I could create my own happy ending for the hero and her companions.
I’ll try to sum up the story the best I can without too many spoilers. You play as Commander Shepard, the hero who sacrificed everything she/ he had to save the galaxy. Defeating Saren, a rogue specter who wanted to have the powers of immortals and thought he could enslave all races with the help of the reapers.
In the second game, you kinda work for the bad guys while reminding yourself that you don’t but in a way, you kinda are because the “illusive man” calls the shots and influences everything, giving advantages to the human race above all other races.
The 3rd game is pretty much the final battle as the reapers are now doing everything they can to destroy all life in the galaxy starting with the human race, the only race that seems to be giving them a run for their money, thanks to their finest fighter Commander Shepard.
The reason why the ending left such a bad feeling with me was because you spend the entire 3 games, saving the galaxy and ensuring that everyone gets a second chance but no matter the choice of the ending you pick you cause a lot of devastation. If you decide to take control over the reapers you sacrifice yourself once again, commanding the reapers to ensure that past events do not happen again. This leaves you feeling like everything you have done, and the members of your crew who gave up their lives so that you could live and protect others, feel pointless.
It really did not feel like any of the choices made sense and it felt rushed.
Writers in video games know how to break our hearts or leave us staring at our ceiling while we think about some of the choices we’ve made throughout the games we play. And I think it’s incredible when they can do it! You know you’ve played a really good video game when the ending leaves you feeling broken and lost.
There are a lot of great games that force us to make really difficult choices and you as the player have to deal with what comes after it. I surely can’t be the only gamer who regrets making a decision in a game that gets carried over to the next installment in the series. So tell me all about your experiences, what was the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make?
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